Ranking every primary CFL logo ever (70-51)
The CFL has a rich history worth celebrating, so we’ve decided to do that by ranking all 70 primary team and league logos in a four-part series.
12 individuals — 11 3DownNation contributors plus CFL podcaster Greg McCulloch, a professional graphic designer — graded each logo separately on a scale from 1 to 10. These scores were then averaged to create the final rankings we will unveil over time. At least one voter represented each of the CFL’s nine markets.
Most of these images came courtesy of SportsLogos.net, though others were sourced from teams directly or elsewhere online. An effort was made to procure a high-resolution image of each logo, though this proved impossible for some of the vintage ones. To keep things neutral, all logos were presented on a plain white background.
Please note that these rankings feature only primary logos — not secondary logos, specialty logos, or wordmarks. We’ve also only included teams that have actually played CFL games — sorry, Atlantic Schooners and Miami Manatees.
Without further ado, here are all 70 primary CFL logos: ranked.
70. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1959-65)
The Golden Boy was visible from Osbourne Stadium, the first home of the Blue Bombers, though this logo didn’t debut until after the venue was demolished, which is bizarre timing. This early emblem looks less like a logo and more like bad graffiti preserved from Pompeii. Simply put, it deserved to be burned in the lava instead of representing a storied franchise.
69. Ottawa Rough Riders (1950-60)
Kudos to the grade four student whose absent-minded doodle became Ottawa’s primary logo for a decade! Despite being riddled with imperfections and looking like it was made on Microsoft Paint decades before that was even possible, this logo’s greatest crime is vagueness. Are these supposed to be shields, leaves, footballs, or something else entirely? We hope to never find out.
68. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1936-58)
A word of advice to mid-century Winnipeggers: when designing a winning logo, you need to do more than slap your city’s coat of arms onto a football. This old-school mark is simultaneously too busy and too bland, with no creative flair to make it memorable. In hindsight, it’s wild that this logo represented the Blue Bombers for over 20 years.
67. Toronto Argonauts (1989-90)
This is more of a wordmark than a logo — and it isn’t a particularly good one of those, either. Harry Ornest, who owned the team for this two-year period, unofficially rebranded the club from “Argonauts” to “Argos” before this decision was thankfully reversed in 1991. For a team with some of the league’s best-ever logos, this is a complete and utter dud.
66. Ottawa Rough Riders (1992-93)
What do flames have to do with the Rough Riders? Your guess is as good as ours. This logo is an unmitigated disaster, looking reminiscent of something a lame hot sauce brand would slap on one of its labels. Unless you’re selling bottles of ‘Rectum Reaper,’ less is more with double Rs. This logo was one of many disastrous missteps for Ottawa during the 1990s.
65. B.C. Lions (1967-77)
When asking someone to design your logo, you should probably ensure they’ve actually seen the animal you use as a mascot. While many people fail to recognize that B.C. is represented by a mountain lion, most people looking at this drawing would have to squint to identify it as a feline of any sort. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a wombat with a face tattoo.
64. Saskatchewan Roughriders (1951-65)
We’re sorry, prairie folks: wheat is boring. A couple of stalks of the stuff placed behind an oddly colourless football is especially boring. This logo made everyone want to yawn for a whole 15 years — which might be why the Riders never won anything while using it.
63. Sacramento Gold Miners
The Gold Miners had one of the boldest colour schemes we’ve ever seen in the CFL, but their primary logo was just kind of bland. Uniformly aqua with just a splash of gold, this logo would have benefitted from a lot more contrast and a team name that wasn’t partially obstructed by the action.
62. Ottawa Rough Riders (1994)
An almost identical version of this logo was created in 1995, which replaced the dark purple with black. While those alterations didn’t make the emblem popular, they were still an improvement over this oversaturated mess.
61. Montreal Alouettes (1946-69)
After some true disasters to start this list, we’re officially starting to reach respectable territory. With that said, this logo looks like something a charity would use to raise money for neonatal care. This isn’t bad but it’s far too cartoonish and delicate to strike fear into the hearts of opponents.
60. Edmonton Football Team (1930-69)
More wheat! What a joy. This time, it’s at least taken a back seat to an oil derrick and a couple of wordmarks draped across a sharp shield. This logo doesn’t live up to modern standards but it’s better than most vintage logos on this list.
59. Calgary Stampeders (1987-95)
Someone should have told the Stampeders that it’s completely unnecessary for your logo to be your logo on a helmet. This is the first of six different Calgary emblems that feature the same horse — two of which have it placed on a helmet.
58. Ottawa Rough Riders (1995-96)
This is the second version of the logo the Rough Riders debuted in 1994, and while it’s certainly an upgrade over the first, it’s also emblematic of a franchise that was in peril. That stoic log driver was careening to his demise over the white water.
57. Calgary Stampeders (1972-86)
Another horse on a helmet. Great. This time, the helmet is slightly more vintage, which was fitting for the time period. Regardless, this logo is nothing to write home about.
56. Edmonton Football Team (1996-97)
For a brief time, Edmonton changed its logo to depict their polar bear mascot, Nanook wearing it like some sort of green and gold poncho. In hindsight, it’s easy to see why this change didn’t last long. At least Punter the anthropomorphic football wasn’t jammed onto the crest as well.
55. Montreal Alouettes (1996-99)
The Alouettes debuted a bold new design when the team moved from Baltimore. This emblem is certainly more intimidating than Montreal’s first logo but it’s still awfully cartoonish. If this were on a cereal box, it wouldn’t look out of place in the children’s aisle.
54. Ottawa Rough Riders (1961-74)
We’re only a quarter of the way down this list and this is already Ottawa’s fifth logo. This one raises several questions, however, as it depicts a “rough rider” — a ranchhand capable of breaking in horses. This makes no sense because it’s generally accepted that the Rough Riders were named after a unit from the Spanish-American War.
53. Montreal Concordes (1982-85)
The colours here are bright and bold — and highly reminiscent of the Montreal Expos — but the proportions of this logo are way off. Why is this logo twice as wide as it is tall? Your guess is as good as ours.
52. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1966-67)
This short-lived emblem marked the first usage of blue and gold in a Winnipeg logo, which seems crazy in hindsight. Colour printing wasn’t always what it is now, but this team had the word “blue” in its name for 30 years before the colour appeared in its logo.
51. Ottawa Renegades (2002-05)
This logo is essentially two in one: a giant wordmark across the top with an actual logo on the bottom. The problem is that neither component is very good. The wordmark looks like a template that came stock with PowerPoint, while the bandit carrying a football looks like something that belongs in the XFL.
Tune back in tomorrow for logos 50 through 31.
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